01/25/2024    Robert Spalding, DPM

TN Podiatrist Quoted on Nail Salon Safety Tips

As much as I like the fact, I was mentioned in PM
News and appreciate their vast contribution to
podiatry, I emphatically wish to mention that I
have been grossly misquoted in this article
reprinted by PM News. I have NEVER promoted
Barbicide or any QAC since publishing my original
book, Death By Pedicure in 2006. I do not promote
any salon or podiatry practice that uses any
Quaternary Ammonium Compounds (QACs) like the
falsely podiatry marketed Benzal disinfectant that
brought negative attention to many fines, health
violations and warnings to New Jersey Podiatrists
in 2016-2017.

That serious issue involved promoting and false
marketing of QACs like Benzal as true liquid
sterilants i.e. glutaraldehyde which is another
product that falls short of simple 30-minute
autoclaving of all routine foot care instruments.
Podiatrists should remember their basic
microbiology and realize to get any value from
true liquid sterilants you need to immerse
instruments for 12 hours at full strength to have
full sporicidal activity and not the 5-minute
soaks that were being used by those who choose
that route.

Benzal and Barbicide are mixed to such horrendous
dilution standards to fail every conceivable test
for any microbial destruction. The CDC has
multiple concerns regarding QACs as they have had
several publications that question QAC
reliability, bacterial resistance and independent
lab results which are the entire basis of EPA
approval for any and all hospital grade
disinfectants. The EPA quit internal testing and
verification of disinfectants in 1984 and only
rely on outside labs that sometimes do not agree
with each other's findings. COVID made everyone
in the US experts in 70% alcohol-based hand
sanitizers. A 40% ABV mixed drink will have more
ETOH in your urine than highly diluted QACs.

The single biggest reason that the entire national
salon industry bases their disinfection standards
on QACs is due to a serious misinterpretation of
the Earl Spalding, PhD classification standards
for disinfection that became the US disinfection
standards for all of healthcare 65 years ago and
need to be updated and simplified for which I have
done in my books and training.

The third edition of my new 2023 textbook, Death
by Pedicure goes into great detail on this subject
.
Robert Spalding, DPM, Signal Mountain, TN

There are no more messages in this thread.